Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to patch panels.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally speaking, after a printed circuit board (PCB), such as a motherboard, is assembled, it needs to be tested via a patch panel and a tester.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional patch panel is shown. The patch panel includes a connector 100 having nine signal input terminals 120, and an output module 200 having nine signal output terminals 220 and two standby signal output terminals 240. The nine signal input terminals 120 are respectively connected to the nine signal output terminals 220. When a motherboard needs to be tested, a tester is connected to the connector 100 via the connector of the tester, and a plurality of test pins of the motherboard are respectively connected to a plurality of the signal output terminals 220, and then the tester will test the motherboard via the patch panel.
When a connecting line of the patch panel is broken, an extra connecting line is used to connect the unconnected input terminal 120 to a standby output terminal 240. However, with this method, the extra connecting line must be welded to the unconnected input terminal 120 and the standby output terminal 240, which is very inconvenient and may damage the patch panel.
What is needed is to provide a patch panel which overcomes the above problems.